Message-handling server and method for handling secure message attachments for a mobile device

ABSTRACT

A secure message that includes an attachment is received at a server. The secure message may have a secure layer that indicates that the secure message is at least digitally signed. The secure message may be provided without the attachment to the mobile device over a wireless network. A request may be received from the mobile device to access the attachment. The request may include an attachment identifier (ID) that identifies the attachment in accordance with a message-attachment indexing system. In response to the request to access the attachment, the server may perform an index lookup to find the attachment based upon the attachment ID, may look through the secure layer of the secure message in order to locate the attachment within the secure message, and may render at least an initial portion of the attachment by the server in a format for viewing by the mobile device.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/285,548, filed Oct. 31, 2011, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,607,326,which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/805,932,filed on Mar. 22, 2004, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,050,653, all ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of secureelectronic messaging, and in particular to accessing messageattachments.

BACKGROUND

Capabilities of wireless mobile communication devices have expandedgreatly. For example, such devices not only receive electronic messages,but can view attachments associated with electronic messages. However,difficulties arise when a mobile device wishes to access attachments ofsecure messages. This is due at least in part to how messages andattachments are structured in order to comport with a security scheme.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the teachings disclosed herein, methods and systemsare provided for handling attachments on wireless mobile communicationdevices. As an example, a method can include receiving an attachmentprovided with a secure message, wherein the secure message itself wasreceived by the server as an attachment. The secure message is processedin order to locate within the secure message the requested attachment.The located attachment is provided to the mobile device.

In some embodiments, a secure message that includes an attachment isreceived at a server. The secure message may have a secure layer thatindicates that the secure message is at least digitally signed. Thesecure message may be provided without the attachment to the mobiledevice over a wireless network. A request may be received from themobile device to access the attachment. The request may include anattachment identifier (ID) that identifies the attachment in accordancewith a message-attachment indexing system. In response to the request toaccess the attachment, the server may perform an index lookup to findthe attachment based upon the attachment ID, may look through the securelayer of the secure message in order to locate the attachment within thesecure message, and may render at least an initial portion of theattachment by the server in a format for viewing by the mobile device.

As another example, a system can include a server having a data storethat stores a secure message and its associated attachment. The securemessage contains a secure layer such that the secure message is receivedby the server as an attachment itself. A secure message processingmodule looks into the secure message through the secure layer in orderto locate the attachment. The located attachment is provided to themobile device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a messaging system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a secure e-mail message exchangein a messaging system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile device accessing anattachment.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting an operational scenario wherein amobile device accesses an attachment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile device receiving arendered attachment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile device providing a keyto a server for use in accessing an attachment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a wireless mobile communication device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The attachment accessing methods and systems disclosed herein may beused with many different types of secure messaging schemes. As anillustration, in a public key cryptography scheme, each user has a keypair including a public key that is distributed or available to otherusers and a private key that is known only to the user that is the“owner” of the key pair. For secure messaging operations based on publickey cryptography, a user uses a private key to decrypt receivedencrypted messages and to sign messages to be sent. Public keys are usedto encrypt messages to be sent and to verify digital signatures onreceived messages. Thus, access to public keys of other users isrequired for different secure messaging operations.

Secure messages may be signed with a digital signature, encrypted, orboth signed and encrypted, and may also be processed in other ways by amessage sender or intermediate system between a message sender and amessaging client which receives the secure message. For example, securemessages include messages that have been signed, encrypted and thensigned, or signed and then encrypted, by a message sender according tovariants of Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME). Asecure message could similarly be encoded, compressed or otherwiseprocessed either before or after being signed and/or encrypted.

A messaging client allows a system on which it operates to receive andpossibly also send messages. Messaging clients operate on a computersystem, a handheld device, or any other system or device withcommunications capabilities. Many messaging clients also have additionalnon-messaging functions.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a messaging system. The system 10 includesa Wide Area Network (WAN) 12, coupled to a computer system 14, awireless network gateway 16, and a Local Area Network (LAN) 18 (e.g., acorporate LAN). The wireless network gateway 16 is also coupled to awireless communication network 20, in which a wireless mobilecommunication device 22 (“mobile device”) is configured to operate.

The computer system 14 is a desktop or laptop personal computer (PC),which is configured to communicate to the WAN 12, which is the Internetin most implementations. PCs, such as computer system 14, normallyaccess the Internet through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), anApplication Service Provider (ASP), or the like.

The LAN 18 is a network-based messaging client. It is normally locatedbehind a security firewall 24. Within the LAN 18, a message server 26,operating on a computer behind the firewall 24, serves as the primaryinterface for the corporation to exchange messages both within the LAN18, and with other external messaging clients via the WAN 12. Two knownmessage servers 26 are Microsoft™ Exchange server and Lotus Domino™server. These servers 26 are often used in conjunction with Internetmail routers that route and deliver mail messages. A server such as themessage server 26 also typically provides additional functionality, suchas dynamic database storage for calendars, to do lists, task lists,e-mail, electronic documentation, etc.

The message server 26 provides messaging capabilities to thecorporation's networked computer systems 28 coupled to the LAN 18. Atypical LAN 18 includes multiple computer systems 28, each of whichimplements a messaging client, such as Microsoft Outlook™, Lotus Notes,etc. Within the LAN 18, messages are received by the message server 26,distributed to the appropriate mailboxes for user accounts addressed inthe received message, and then accessed by a user through a computersystem 28 operating as a messaging client.

The wireless gateway 16 provides an interface to a wireless network 20,through which messages are exchanged with a mobile device 22. Suchfunctions as addressing of the mobile device 22, encoding or otherwisetransforming messages for wireless transmission, and any other requiredinterface functions are performed by the wireless gateway 16. Althoughthe wireless gateway 16 operates with the single wireless network 20 inFIG. 1, wireless gateways may be configured to operate with more thanone wireless network in alternative embodiments, in which case thewireless gateway may also determine a most likely network for locating agiven mobile device user and may also track users as they roam betweencountries or networks.

Any computer system 14, 28 with access to the WAN 12 may exchangemessages with a mobile device 22 through the wireless network gateway16. Alternatively, private wireless network gateways, such as wirelessVirtual Private Network (VPN) routers, could be implemented to provide aprivate interface to a wireless network. For example, a wireless VPNrouter implemented in the LAN 18 would provide a private interface fromthe LAN 18 to one or more mobile devices such as the mobile device 22through the wireless network 20. Wireless VPN routers and other types ofprivate interfaces to the mobile device 22 may effectively be extendedto entities outside the LAN 18 by providing a message forwarding orredirection system that operates with the message server 26. Such aredirection system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,694, which ishereby incorporated into this application by reference. In this type ofredirection system, incoming messages received by the message server 26and addressed to a user of a mobile device 22 are sent through thewireless network interface, either a wireless VPN router, wirelessgateway 16 or other interface, to the wireless network 20 and to theuser's mobile device 22. Another alternate interface to a user's mailboxon a message server 26 is a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) gateway,through which a list of messages in a user's mailbox on the messageserver 26, and possibly each message or a portion of each message, couldbe sent to the mobile device 22.

Wireless networks such as the wireless network 20 normally deliverinformation to and from mobile devices via RF transmissions between basestations and the mobile devices. The wireless network 20 may, forexample, be a data-centric wireless network, a voice-centric wirelessnetwork, or a dual-mode network that can support both voice and datacommunications over the same infrastructure. Known data-centric networkinclude the Mobitex™ Radio Network (“Mobitex”), and the DataTAC™ RadioNetwork (“DataTAC”). Examples of known voice-centric data networksinclude Personal Communication Systems (PCS) networks like Global Systemfor Mobile Communications (GSM) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)systems. Dual-mode wireless networks include Code Division MultipleAccess (CDMA) networks, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) networks,and so-called third-generation (3G) networks, such as Enhanced Datarates for Global Evolution (EDGE) and Universal MobileTelecommunications Systems (UMTS), which are currently underdevelopment.

The mobile device 22 is a data communication device, a voicecommunication device, or a multiple-mode device capable of voice, dataand other types of communications. An exemplary mobile device 22 isdescribed in further detail below.

Perhaps the most common type of messaging currently in use is e-mail. Ina standard e-mail system, an e-mail message is sent by an e-mail sender,possibly through a message server and/or a service provider system, andis then routed through the Internet, when necessary, to one or moremessage receivers. E-mail messages are normally sent in the clear andtypically use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) headers andMulti-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) body parts to define theformat of the e-mail message.

In recent years, secure messaging techniques have evolved to protectboth the content and integrity of messages, such as e-mail messages.S/MIME and Pretty Good Privacy™ (PGP™) are two public key secure e-mailmessaging protocols that provide for both encryption, to protect datacontent, and signing, which protects the integrity of a message andprovides for sender authentication by a message receiver. In addition toutilizing digital signatures and possibly encryption, secure messagesmay also be encoded, compressed or otherwise processed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a secure e-mail message exchangein a messaging system. The system includes an e-mail sender 30 coupledto a WAN 32, and a wireless gateway 34, which provides an interfacebetween the WAN 32 and a wireless network 36. A mobile device 38 isadapted to operate within the wireless network 36.

The e-mail sender 30 is a PC, such as the system 14 in FIG. 1, anetwork-connected computer, such as computer 28 in FIG. 1, or a mobiledevice, on which a messaging client operates to enable e-mail messagesto be composed and sent. The WAN 32, wireless gateway 34, wirelessnetwork 36 and mobile device 38 are substantially the same assimilarly-labelled components in FIG. 1.

In an example digital signature scheme, a secure e-mail message sender30 digitally signs a message by taking a digest of the message andsigning the digest using the sender's private key. A digest may, forexample, be generated by performing a check-sum, a Cyclic RedundancyCheck (CRC), a hash, or some other non-reversible operation on themessage. This digest is then digitally signed by the sender using thesender's private key. The private key is used to perform an encryptionor some other transformation operation on the digest to generate adigest signature. A digital signature, including the digest and thedigest signature, is then appended to the outgoing message. In addition,a digital Certificate (Cert) of the sender, which includes the sender'spublic key and sender identity information that is bound to the publickey with one or more digital signatures, and possibly any chained Certsand Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) associated with the Cert and anychained Certs, is often included with the outgoing message.

The secure e-mail message 40 sent by the e-mail sender 30 includes acomponent 42 including the sender's Cert, Cert chain, CRLs and digitalsignature and the signed message body 44. In the S/MIME secure messagingtechnique, Certs, CRLs and digital signatures are normally placed at thebeginning of a message as shown in FIG. 2, and the message body isincluded in a file attachment. Messages generated by other securemessaging schemes may place message components in a different order thanshown or include additional and/or different components. For example, asigned message 40 may include addressing information, such as “To:” and“From:” email addresses, and other header information not shown in FIG.2.

When the secure e-mail message 40 is sent from the e-mail sender 30, itis routed through the WAN 32 to the wireless gateway 34, through thewireless network 36, and then to the mobile device 38. As describedabove, an e-mail message sender may alternatively send a messagedirectly to a wireless gateway, to a computer system associated with amobile device, or to a wireless VPN router or other interface fordelivery to a mobile device.

The receiver of the signed message 40, the mobile device 38, typicallyverifies the digital signature 42 in the secure message 40 by generatinga digest of the message body 44, extracting the transmitted digest fromthe digital signature 42, comparing the generated digest with the digestextracted from the digital signature 42, and then verifying the digestsignature in the digital signature. The digest algorithm used by asecure message receiver to generate the generated digest is the same asthe algorithm used by the message sender, and is normally specified in amessage header, or possibly in a digital signature of the securemessage. Commonly used digest algorithm include the Secure HashAlgorithm 1 (SHA1) and Message-Digest Algorithm 5 (MD5), although otherdigest algorithms may be used. It should be appreciated that the systemsand methods described herein are in no way limited to the above, or anyother digital signature scheme.

In order to verify the digest signature, the receiver 38 retrieves thepublic key of the sender 30, generally by extracting the public key fromthe sender's Cert 42 attached to the message 40, and then verifies thesignature on the digest in the digital signature by performing a reversetransformation on the digest signature. For example, if the messagesender 30 generated the digest signature by encrypting the digest usingits private key, then a receiver 38 uses the sender's public key todecrypt the digest signature to recover the original digest. The securemessage 40 shown in FIG. 2 includes the sender's Cert 42, from which thesender's public key can be extracted. Where the sender's public key wasextracted from an earlier message from the sender 30 and stored in a keystore in the receiver's local store, the sender's public key may insteadbe retrieved from the local store. Alternatively, the public key may beretrieved from the sender's Cert stored in a local store, or from aPublic Key Server (PKS). A PKS is a server that is normally associatedwith a Certificate Authority (CA) from which a Cert for an entity,including the entity's public key, is available. A PKS might residewithin a corporate LAN such as 18 (FIG. 1), or anywhere on the WAN 32,Internet or other network or system through which message receivers mayestablish communications with the PKS.

The Cert, Cert chain and CRLs 42 are used by a receiver to ensure thatthe sender's Cert is valid, i.e., that the Cert has not been revoked orexpired, and is trusted. A Cert is often part of a Cert chain, whichincludes a user's Cert as well as other Certs to verify that the user'sCert is authentic. For example, a Cert for any particular entitytypically includes the entity's public key and identificationinformation that is bound to the public key with a digital signature.Several types of Cert currently in use include, for example, X.509Certs, which are typically used in S/MIME, and PGP Certs, which have aslightly different format. The digital signature in a Cert is generatedby the issuer of the Cert, and is checked by a message receiver asdescribed above. A Cert may include an expiry time or validity periodfrom which a messaging client determines if the Cert has expired. When aCRL is available, the Cert is checked against the CRL to ensure that theCert has not been revoked.

If the digital signature in a message sender's Cert is verified, theCert has not expired or been revoked, and the issuer of the Cert istrusted by a message receiver, then the digital signature of the messageis trusted by the message receiver. If the issuer of the Cert is nottrusted, then the message receiver traces a certification path throughthe Cert chain to verify that each Cert in the chain was signed by itsissuer, whose Cert is next in the Cert chain, until a Cert is found thatwas signed by a root Cert from a trusted source, such as a large PKS.Once a root Cert is found, then a signature can be trusted, because boththe sender and receiver trust the source of the root Cert.

If a secure message was encrypted or otherwise processed by a messagesender after being signed, then each receiver first decrypts or performsother inverse processing operations on the message before signatureverification is performed. Where encryption or other processing wasperformed before signing, however, inverse processing such as decryptionis performed after signature verification. Encryption and decryptioninvolve applying a cryptographic key and cipher algorithm to informationto be encrypted or decrypted. Encryption and decryption usecorresponding cipher algorithms, which may or may not be the same, andeither the same or different cryptographic keys. In public key systems,different keys are used for encryption and decryption, whereas in“shared secret” type operations, the same key, a secret shared between asender and recipient, is used for both encryption and decryption.

Access to a user's public key is also used when an outgoing messageaddressed to that user is to be encrypted according to a public keyencryption algorithm. However, when an error is encountered during apublic key access operation, known messaging clients provide little orno information as to the nature of any errors and possible solutions.

FIG. 3 illustrates a mobile device 100 wishing to access an attachment102 that is attached to a secure message 104. In FIG. 3, the securemessage scheme used in this example treats the secure message 104 itselfas an attachment. As an illustration, when a server 106 receives anS/MIME message 104, the S/MIME message 104 is (at least initially)perceived by the server 106 as an attachment due to how the S/MIMEmessage 104 is structured. Such a scheme may be considered as having anattachment 102 within another attachment (i.e., the secure message 104).

A reason that a secure message 104 appears as an attachment to an e-mailprogram (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) or to the server 106 is that themessage has been enveloped (e.g., encrypted or otherwise protected) witha secure layer. For example, the secure layer can result from themessage being encrypted using a random symmetric key, wherein thatsymmetric key may then be encrypted using the recipient's public key andsent along with the message. If a message is being sent to multiplerecipients, the symmetric key is encrypted separately by everyrecipient's public key. The enveloped message and the encryptedsymmetric keys are packaged together and also may be protected via adigital signature.

More specifically, since S/MIME is used to secure MIME entities, a MIMEentity that is secured as such can be thought of as the “inside” MIMEentity. That is, it is the “innermost” object of a larger MIME message.One or more attachments may be contained within a MIME entity. Theseaspects are further discussed in RFC 2633 (version 3) entitled “S/MIMEVersion 3 Message Specification.” It should be understood that messagesecurity techniques other than S/MIME may be used that result in asecure layer that envelops or wraps message components and which need tobe processed by the systems and methods disclosed herein.

An attachment 102 contained within a secure message 104 that a mobiledevice 100 wishes to obtain may be any type of file, such as atextual/word processing document. The attachment 102 may also be animage, audio or video file.

Because the mobile device 100 is typically resource-limited and in orderto save bandwidth, the message server 106 may elect not to initiallysend the attachment 102 to the mobile device 100 over a wirelessconnector system 108. While viewing the message on the mobile device100, a user can request that the message's associated attachment data102 be transmitted to the mobile device 100 over the wireless connectorsystem 108. It is noted that the wireless connector system 108 mayinclude a wireless network, wireless gateway, and/or wide area network.

The server 106 receives the attachment request 110 and uses theidentifying information contained within the attachment request 110 tolocate the proper attachment 102. The server 106 contains computerinstructions, such as a secure message processing module 112, to lookinside the secure message 104 to locate the attachment 102. In order tolook inside the secure message 104, decryption operations may need totake place. Location of the attachment 102 within the secure message 104can be accomplished in many ways, such as by locating a MIME field thatcontains or is associated with the desired attachment.

Once located, the server 106 sends over the wireless connector system108 the requested attachment 114 to the mobile device 100. The mobiledevice 100 can then use the transmitted attachment 114 in any waypermitted for the attachment, such as to view the attachment 114 or playan audio attachment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an operational scenario wherein a mobile deviceaccesses an attachment. At step 200, a mobile device receives a securemessage. If the secure message has one or more attachments, then themobile device typically displays an icon to the user in order toindicate that an attachment is associated with the message and can beprovided to the user. The server may provide an indication to the mobiledevice that the secure message has an attachment, and the server'sindication is used by the mobile device to indicate to the mobiledevice's user that the secure message has an attachment. Additionally,it should be understood that there may be situations where an attachmentis to be provided to a mobile device other than a user indicating adesire to retrieve an attachment. As an illustration, a mobile devicemay automatically retrieve an attachment based upon the message beingopened.

If the attachment is to be retrieved, then at step 202 the mobile deviceprovides a request to have the attachment provided to it. At step 204,the server receives the attachment request. The attachment request mayuse many different approaches to indicate which attachment(s) the mobiledevice wishes to receive. For example, the device can specify whichattachment it is interested in by using a message attachment indexingsystem that the device and server both understand. When the user wishesto view an attachment in an S/MIME message, the device sends theappropriate attachment identifier to the server. The server performs anindex lookup to find the attachment or the message containing theattachment based upon the identifier.

At step 206, the server processes the secure message encoding and findsthe attachment within the secure message. At step 208, the serverprovides the attachment to the mobile device. The mobile device providesthe attachment to the user at step 210. It should be understood that thesteps in the flowchart need not necessarily include all of the stepsdisclosed herein and may include further steps and operations. Forexample, the server may initially look inside the secure message, suchas by decrypting the secure message, to determine whether anyattachments are associated with the secure message. The server canprovide an indication to the mobile device as to whether the securemessage contained any attachments (which indication can then be providedto the user).

As another example, the server may render the attachment beforetransmitting it to the mobile device. As shown in FIG. 5, the server 106may render the attachment 102 so that the attachment 102 can be moreeasily viewed (provided that the attachment is of the type that can beviewed by the mobile device). A rendering operation software module 300accessible by the server 106 can perform the proper rendering of theattachment 102 so that the resource-limited mobile device 100 does nothave to perform such operations.

The rendering operation software module 300 renders the attachment 102so as to be compatible with the attachment viewing software used by themobile device 100. If needed, module 300 can access a lookup table todetermine which format to use to render the attachment 102 for aparticular mobile device 100. It should be understood that otherapproaches may be used, such as the mobile device 100 indicating to theserver 106 which format should be used to render the attachment 102, orthe server 106 providing attachment viewing software to the mobiledevice 100 so that the mobile device 100 may view the renderedattachment 114.

The rendered attachment 114 is transmitted to the mobile device 100 andviewed normally on the mobile device 100. The server 106 may transmitall or a portion of the attachment 102. In the situation of the latter,if the mobile device 100 wants to see additional portions of theattachment 102, then the server 106 will send additional portions of theattachment 102 in response to a request by the mobile device 100.

Other operations can be performed with respect to the secure message andits attachment(s). For example, if a message is just signed, then theserver can process the secure message encoding and find the attachment.However, if the message is encrypted, then the server uses one or moresymmetric/asymmetric keys that are needed to decrypt the secure message.

As shown in FIG. 6, the mobile device 100 may provide the session key402 (which was used to encrypt the secure message 104) to the server 106with the attachment request 110. The server 106 accesses anencryption/decryption processing module 400 to decrypt the securemessage 104 using the transmitted session key 402. After the securemessage 104 had been decrypted by the module 400, the secure messageprocessing module 112 looks into the secure message 104 and obtains theattachment 102. The attachment 302 is transmitted for use by the mobiledevice 100. The attachment 302 is optionally rendered as described abovebefore transmission to the mobile device 100.

It will be appreciated that the systems and methods are disclosed by wayof example only. Many variations on the systems and methods describedabove are within the scope of the invention as claimed, whether or notexpressly described. For example, the operations disclosed herein may beimplemented as the secure message processing module may comprise one ormore modules in order to handle a secure message and its attachment(s).Data structures may be used as part of the operations, such as to storedata needed to access the attachment contained within a secure message.Still further, data signals transmitted using a communication channelmay be used with the systems and methods. The data signals can includeany type of data, such as the data and attachments transmitted to and/orfrom a mobile device. The data signal may be packetized data that istransmitted through a carrier wave or other medium across the network.Computer-readable media may be provided to and used with the mobiledevice that is capable of causing a mobile device to perform the methodsand implement the systems disclosed herein.

As another example, the methods and systems may be used with a wideassortment of electronic devices, such as a personal digital assistant(PDA) device or the mobile device 600 shown in FIG. 7. With reference toFIG. 7, the mobile device 600 is preferably a two-way communicationdevice having at least voice and data communication capabilities. Themobile device 600 preferably has the capability to communicate withother computer systems on the Internet. Depending on the functionalityprovided by the device, the device may be referred to as a datamessaging device, a two-way pager, a cellular telephone with datamessaging capabilities, a wireless Internet appliance or a datacommunication device (with or without telephony capabilities).

The mobile device 600 includes a transceiver 611, a microprocessor 638,a display 622, non-volatile memory 624, RAM 626, auxiliary input/output(I/O) devices 628, a serial port 630, a keyboard 632, a speaker 634, amicrophone 636, a short-range wireless communications sub-system 640,and other device sub-systems 642. The transceiver 611 includes transmitand receive antennas 616, 618, a receiver (Rx) 612, a transmitter (Tx)614, one or more local oscillators (LOs) 613, and a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 620. Within the non-volatile memory 624, the mobiledevice 600 includes a plurality of software modules 624A-624N that canbe executed by the microprocessor 638 (and/or the DSP 620), including avoice communication module 624A, a data communication module 624B, and aplurality of other operational modules 624N for carrying out a pluralityof other functions.

As described above, the mobile device 600 is preferably a two-waycommunication device having voice and data communication capabilities.Thus, for example, the mobile device 600 may communicate over a voicenetwork, such as any of the analog or digital cellular networks, and mayalso communicate over a data network. The voice and data networks aredepicted in FIG. 7 by the communication tower 619. These voice and datanetworks may be separate communication networks using separateinfrastructure, such as base stations, network controllers, etc., orthey may be integrated into a single wireless network.

The communication subsystem 611 is used to communicate with the network619. The DSP 620 is used to send and receive communication signals toand from the transmitter 614 and receiver 612, and may also exchangecontrol information with the transmitter 614 and receiver 612. If thevoice and data communications occur at a single frequency, orclosely-spaced set of frequencies, then a single LO 613 may be used inconjunction with the transmitter 614 and receiver 612. Alternatively, ifdifferent frequencies are utilized for voice communications versus datacommunications, then a plurality of LOs 613 can be used to generate aplurality of frequencies corresponding to the network 619. Although twoantennas 616, 618 are depicted in FIG. 7, the mobile device 600 could beused with a single antenna structure. Information, which includes bothvoice and data information, is communicated to and from thecommunication module 611 via a link between the DSP 620 and themicroprocessor 638.

The detailed design of the communication subsystem 611, such asfrequency band, component selection, power level, etc., will bedependent upon the communication network 619 in which the mobile device600 is intended to operate. For example, a mobile device 600 intended tooperate in a North American market may include a communication subsystem611 designed to operate with the Mobitex or DataTAC mobile datacommunication networks and also designed to operated with any of avariety of voice communication networks, such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, PCS,etc., whereas a mobile device 600 intended for use in Europe may beconfigured to operate with the GPRS data communication network and theGSM voice communication network. Other types of data and voice networks,both separate and integrated, may also be utilized with the mobiledevice 600.

Depending upon the type of network 619, the access requirements for thedual-mode mobile device 600 may also vary. For example, in the Mobitexand DataTAC data networks, mobile devices are registered on the networkusing a unique identification number associated with each device. InGPRS data networks, however, network access is associated with asubscriber or user of a mobile device 600. A GPRS device typicallyrequires a subscriber identity module (“SIM”), which is required inorder to operate the mobile device 600 on a GPRS network. Local ornon-network communication functions (if any) may be operable, withoutthe SIM, but the mobile device 600 will be unable to carry out anyfunctions involving communications over the network 619, other than anylegally required operations, such as ‘911’ emergency calling.

After any required network registration or activation procedures havebeen completed, the mobile device 600 may send and receive communicationsignals, preferably including both voice and data signals, over thenetwork 619. Signals received by the antenna 616 from the communicationnetwork 619 are routed to the receiver 612, which provides for signalamplification, frequency down conversion, filtering, channel selection,etc., and may also provide analog to digital conversion. Analog todigital conversion of the received signal allows more complexcommunication functions, such as digital demodulation and decoding to beperformed using the DSP 620. In a similar manner, signals to betransmitted to the network 619 are processed, including modulation andencoding, for example, by the DSP 620 and are then provided to thetransmitter 614 for digital to analog conversion, frequency upconversion, filtering, amplification and transmission to thecommunication network 619 via the antenna 618. Although a singletransceiver 611 is shown in FIG. 7 for both voice and datacommunications, the mobile device 600 may include two distincttransceivers, a first transceiver for transmitting and receiving voicesignals, and a second transceiver for transmitting and receiving datasignals.

In addition to processing the communication signals, the DSP 620 alsoprovides for receiver and transmitter control. For example, the gainlevels applied to communication signals in the receiver 612 andtransmitter 614 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gaincontrol algorithms implemented in the DSP 620. Other transceiver controlalgorithms could also be implemented in the DSP 620 in order to providemore sophisticated control of the transceiver 611.

The microprocessor 638 preferably manages and controls the overalloperation of the mobile device 600. Many types of microprocessors ormicrocontrollers could be used for this part, or, alternatively, asingle DSP 620 could be used to carry out the functions of themicroprocessor 638. Low-level communication functions, including atleast data and voice communications, are performed through the DSP 620in the transceiver 611. Other, high-level communication applications,such as a voice communication application 624A, and a data communicationapplication 624B may be stored in the non-volatile memory 624 forexecution by the microprocessor 638. For example, the voicecommunication module 624A may provide a high-level user interfaceoperable to transmit and receive voice calls between the mobile device600 and a plurality of other voice devices via the network 619.Similarly, the data communication module 624B may provide a high-leveluser interface operable for sending and receiving data, such as e-mailmessages, files, organizer information, short text messages, etc.,between the mobile device 600 and a plurality of other data devices viathe network 619.

The microprocessor 638 also interacts with other device subsystems, suchas the display 622, non-volatile memory 624, random access memory (RAM)626, auxiliary input/output (I/O) subsystems 628, serial port 630,keyboard 632, speaker 634, microphone 636, a short-range communicationssubsystem 640 and any other device subsystems generally designated as642. The components 628, 632, 634 and 636 are examples of the types ofsubsystems that could be provided as users interfaces. The modules624A-N are executed by the microprocessor 638 and may provide ahigh-level interface between a user of the mobile device and the mobiledevice. This interface typically includes a graphical component providedthrough the display 622, and an input/output component provided throughthe auxiliary I/O 628, keyboard 632, speaker 634, or microphone 636.

Some of the subsystems shown in FIG. 7 perform communication-relatedfunctions, whereas other subsystems may provide “resident” or on-devicefunctions. Notably, some subsystems, such as keyboard 632 and display622 may be used for both communication-related functions, such asentering a text message for transmission over a data communicationnetwork, and device-resident functions such as a calculator or task listor other PDA type functions.

Operating system software used by the microprocessor 638 is preferablystored in a persistent store such as non-volatile memory 624. Inaddition to the operating system and communication modules 624A-N, thenon-volatile memory 624 may also include a file system for storing data.A storage area is also preferably provided in the non-volatile memory624 to store public keys, a private key, and other information requiredfor secure messaging. The operating system, specific device applicationsor modules, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into a volatilestore, such as RAM 626 for faster operation. Moreover, receivedcommunication signals may also be temporarily stored to RAM 626 beforepermanently writing them to a file system located in the non-volatilestore 624. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the non-volatilestore 624 may be implemented as a Flash memory component or a batterybacked-up RAM, for example.

An exemplary application module 624N that may be loaded onto the mobiledevice 600 is a personal information manager (PIM) application providingPDA functionality, such as calendar events, appointments, and taskitems. This module 624N may also interact with the voice communicationmodule 624A for managing phone calls, voice mails, etc., and may alsointeract with the data communication module 624B for managing e-mailcommunications and other data transmissions. Alternatively, all of thefunctionality of the voice communication module 624A and the datacommunication module 624B may be integrated into the PIM module.

The non-volatile memory 624 preferably provides a file system tofacilitate storage of PIM data items on the device. The PIM applicationpreferably includes the ability to send and receive data items, eitherby itself, or in conjunction with the voice and data communicationmodules 624A, 624B, via the wireless network 619. The PIM data items arepreferably seamlessly integrated, synchronized and updated, via thewireless network 619, with a corresponding set of data items stored orassociated with a host computer system, thereby creating a mirroredsystem for data items associated with a particular user.

The mobile device 600 may also be manually synchronized with a hostsystem by placing the mobile device 600 in an interface cradle, whichcouples the serial port 630 of the mobile device 600 to the serial portof the host system. The serial port 630 may also be used to downloadother application modules 624N for installation, and to load Certs, keysand other information onto a device. This wired download path may beused to load an encryption key onto the mobile device 600, which is amore secure method than exchanging encryption information via thewireless network 619.

Additional application modules 624N may be loaded onto the mobile device600 through the network 619, through an auxiliary I/O subsystem 628,through the serial port 630, through the short-range communicationssubsystem 640, or through any other suitable subsystem 642, andinstalled by a user in the non-volatile memory 624 or RAM 626. Suchflexibility in application installation increases the functionality ofthe mobile device 600 and may provide enhanced on-device functions,communication-related functions, or both. For example, securecommunication applications may enable electronic commerce functions andother such financial transactions to be performed using the mobiledevice 600.

When the mobile device 600 is operating in a data communication mode, areceived signal, such as a text message or a web page download, isprocessed by the transceiver 611 and provided to the microprocessor 638,which preferably further processes the received signal for output to thedisplay 622, or, alternatively, to an auxiliary I/O device 628. A userof mobile device 600 may also compose data items, such as emailmessages, using the keyboard 632, which is preferably a completealphanumeric keyboard laid out in the QWERTY style, although otherstyles of complete alphanumeric keyboards such as the known DVORAK stylemay also be used. User input to the mobile device 600 is furtherenhanced with a plurality of auxiliary I/O devices 628, which mayinclude a thumbwheel input device, a touchpad, a variety of switches, arocker input switch, etc. The composed data items input by the user maythen be transmitted over the communication network 619 via thetransceiver 611.

When the mobile device 600 is operating in a voice communication mode,the overall operation of the mobile device 600 is substantially similarto the data mode, except that received signals are preferably output tothe speaker 634 and voice signals for transmission are generated by amicrophone 636. Alternative voice or audio I/O subsystems, such as avoice message recording subsystem, may also be implemented on the mobiledevice 600. Although voice or audio signal output is preferablyaccomplished primarily through the speaker 634, the display 622 may alsobe used to provide an indication of the identity of a calling party, theduration of a voice call, or other voice call related information. Forexample, the microprocessor 638, in conjunction with the voicecommunication module 624A and the operating system software, may detectthe caller identification information of an incoming voice call anddisplay it on the display 622.

A short-range communications subsystem 640 is also included in themobile device 600. For example, the subsystem 640 may include aninfrared device and associated circuits and components, or a short-rangewireless communication module such as a Bluetooth™ communication moduleor an 802.11 module to provide for communication with similarly-enabledsystems and devices. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that“Bluetooth” and “802.11” refer to sets of specifications, available fromthe Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), relatingto wireless personal area networks and wireless LANs, respectively.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method performed by a server for handlingsecure message attachments for a mobile device, the method comprising:receiving a secure message that includes an attachment, the securemessage having a secure layer that indicates that the secure message isdigitally signed, wherein the attachment is also secured within thesecure message, and wherein the secure message is structured accordingto a security scheme such that the secure message is handled as anattachment by the server; storing the secure message with the firstattachment comprised therein at the server; generating a version of thesecure message to send to the mobile device, the generating comprisingprocessing an encoding of the secure message to identify the attachment,and removing the attachment from the secure message; providing thegenerated version of the secure message, as an attachment, over a secureconnection to the mobile device; receiving a request to access theattachment from the mobile device; retrieving the attachment based onthe encoded secure message in response to receiving the request; andafter the attachment has been retrieved, providing the attachment to themobile device over the secure connection.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein the secure connection is a virtual-private network (VPN)connection.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: rendering theattachment by the server in a format for viewing by the mobile devicefor transmission over the secure connection.
 4. The method of claim 3wherein rendering comprises: rendering an initial portion of theattachment by the server in the format for viewing by the mobile devicefor an initial transmission over the secure connection; and rendering anadditional portion of the attachment by the server in the format forviewing by the mobile device for subsequent transmission over the secureconnection.
 5. The method of claim 3 further comprising selecting theformat by the server to be compatible for viewing on the mobile devicebased on characteristics of the mobile device.
 6. The method of claim 1wherein providing the secure message comprises: rendering an initialportion of the secure message by the server in the format for viewing bythe mobile device for an initial transmission to the mobile device; andrendering an additional portion of the secure message by the server inthe format for viewing by the mobile device for subsequent transmissionto the mobile device.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the securityscheme is a Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)scheme.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the attachment comprises atleast one of a textual document, word processing document, audio file,image file, and video file.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the requestincludes an attachment identifier (ID) that identifies the attachment inaccordance with a message-attachment indexing system, and wherein themethod includes the server performing an index lookup to find theattachment based upon the attachment ID.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the secure message has a plurality of attachments, each havingan attachment ID, wherein the request includes one or more of theattachment IDs.
 11. The server of claim 1 wherein the secure message hasa plurality of attachments, each having an attachment ID, wherein therequest includes one or more of the attachment IDs.
 12. A serverarranged for handling secure message attachments for mobile devices, theserver having network interface circuitry arranged to: receive a securemessage that includes attachment, the secure message having a securelayer that indicates that the secure message is digitally signed,wherein the attachment is also secured within the secure message, andwherein the secure message is structured according to a security schemesuch that the secure message is handled as an attachment by the server;store the secure message with the attachment comprised therein at theserver; generate a version of the secure message to send to the mobiledevice, the version of the secure messaging being generated byprocessing an encoding of the secure message to identify the attachment,and removing the attachment from the secure message; provide thegenerated version of the secure message, as an attachment, over a secureconnection to the mobile device; receive a request to access theattachment from the mobile device; retrieve the attachment based on theencoded secure message in response to receiving the request; and afterthe attachment has been retrieved, provide the attachment to the mobiledevice over the secure connection in response to the request to accessthe attachment from the mobile device.
 13. The server of claim 12wherein the secure connection is a virtual-private network (VPN)connection.
 14. The server of claim 13 further configured to: render theattachment by the server in a format for viewing by the mobile devicefor transmission over the secure connection.
 15. The server of claim 14wherein to render the attachment, the server is configured to: render aninitial portion of the attachment in the format for viewing by themobile device for an initial transmission over the secure connection;and render an additional portion of the attachment in the format forviewing by the mobile device for subsequent transmission over the secureconnection.
 16. The server of claim 14 wherein the format is selected bythe server to be compatible for viewing on the mobile device based oncharacteristics of the mobile device.
 17. The server of claim 12 whereinto provide the secure message, the server is further configured to:render an initial portion of the secure message in the format forviewing by the mobile device for an initial transmission to the mobiledevice; and render an additional portion of the secure message in theformat for viewing by the mobile device for subsequent transmission tothe mobile device.
 18. The server of claim 12 wherein the securityscheme is a Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)scheme.
 19. The server of claim 12 wherein the attachment comprises atleast one of a textual document, word processing document, audio file,image file, and video file.
 20. The server of claim 12 wherein therequest includes an attachment identifier (ID) that identifies theattachment in accordance with a message-attachment indexing system, andwherein the server is further arranged to perform an index lookup tofind the attachment based upon the attachment ID.
 21. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for executionby one or more processors of a server to perform operations for handlingsecure message attachments for mobile devices, the operationscomprising: receiving a secure message that includes attachment, thesecure message having a secure layer that indicates that the securemessage is digitally signed, wherein the attachment is also securedwithin the secure message, and wherein the secure message is structuredaccording to a security scheme such that the secure message is handledas an attachment by the server; processing an encoding of the securemessage to identify the attachment; removing the attachment from thesecure message based on processing the encoding; after the attachmenthas been removed, providing the secure message, as an attachment, over asecure connection to the mobile device; providing an indication to themobile device that the secure message comprises the attachment availableat the server, the indication being provided separate from the securemessage; and after the indication has been provided to the mobiledevice, providing the attachment to the mobile device over the secureconnection in response to a request to access the attachment from themobile device, wherein providing the attachment comprises: retrievingthe attachment based on the encoded secure message in response toreceiving the request.